Guide
How to choose a paint colour
Choosing a paint shade, including lighting, sample testing and why screen colour is unreliable.
Answer
How do I choose a paint colour?
Explanation
Why screens mislead
Screens vary in calibration, printing varies in process, and neither reproduces how a pigment behaves under your room’s light. A shade that looks warm on a phone can read cold on a north-facing wall.
Detail
Lighting
Daylight, warm artificial light and mixed light each shift perceived colour. Look at the sample at different times of day before committing, particularly for a whole-room decision.
Detail
The existing wall affects the comparison
A new shade beside an old one reads differently from the same shade across a finished wall. That is worth knowing before rejecting a sample that looked fine on the card.
Detail
Keep the code
Keeping the shade code or tint formula helps identify the original colour for a future purchase. A future touch-up may still differ because of ageing, fading, surface condition, batch, application method and lighting. An exact match cannot be guaranteed.
Questions
Also asked
Why did the colour look different on the wall?
Lighting, surrounding colours, the finish and the surface underneath all affect it. This is why a sample on the actual wall is worth the small cost.
Next
Ready to plan it?
Measure the walls, estimate each layer and build a paint list to send as one structured requirement.